8-20-12

Hey mom,

That’s pretty awesome about the store. You’ll have to send me photos of it when you get it all fixed up. Funny thing about Barry Mcgee, we had stake conference here this weekend and all of the senior missionaries where there too. One of them walked up to me and asked me where I was from, so when I told him Farmington, New Mexico he was just kind of giving me this weird look and then he says, “I am from there, born and raised.” He said that he hasn’t lived there for like 20 years, but that he was a best friend with Barry and they played basketball at FHS together. His last name was James, but he said he didn’t know a Bob James. Just thought of how small of a world this is that even in some remote city in Guatemala I can run into somebody who knows somebody I know.

We had a really good week here; we have a baptism coming up this weekend and some other investigators that are coming along so hopefully I will stay here for longer than 3 weeks.

It is still rainy season. The hurricane is gone now which is nice, but its still rains every day from about 3 in the afternoon until we go to bed. They say it’s like that till the end of September, but I'm just kind of used to it now.  It’s not really a big deal. We just carry umbrellas with us all day every day and that’s about all you need. If it’s really windy I will use my rain jacket but that is pretty rare.

Like I said before the area is tiny tiny. It takes about three or four minutes to walk from one side to another, so it can be a little boring at times because there is not a ton that we can do if we don’t have appointments planned.  The bishop banned us from contacting because we will burn out the area in a day or two if we just go around knocking doors, so we have had to be a little creative to fill the time. The family I was telling you about last week, the really really poor one, we do a lot of service for them. Since they don’t have lights or water in their house, they have to cook with fire, so we like to climb up the mountain with our machetes and cut firewood for them. My hands are super blistered right now because one day for an hour straight we were going at this tree but we actually cut it down. It’s pretty sweet actually, you feel like Rambo walking through the forest in Guate macheteing trees and stuff.

I am looking forward to the flea collars because this house has fleas too. I think it’s all of the houses. Our house here is insanely tiny, but I really like it because its super easy to clean. Its just one room, and then in the corner is kind of walled off the bathroom, but not really. The whole house is about as big as the living room in the basement. It’s basically just beds, desks, and fridge. We don't have anywhere to put our clothes so we put them in the cupboards where the dishes should go. But like I said, super easy to keep it clean so I really like it.

This p-day was pretty cool though; my comp and I went with one of the other gringos in my district to play basketball in the morning with the members from the other gringo’s ward. It was soooooo nice to play basketball and not soccer ha-ha. I miss basketball. And then after that we climbed, well actually ended up paying a bus to take us to the top, of the mountain here. It’s called Baúl also, hence the name of my area. There is a park on top that is cool and we did a barbeque with the whole zone and everything. They have a giant cross (of course) at the top that looks over the city; it was really pretty and quiet. It was kind of nice to get out of the concrete jungle for a little bit.

After that we had to go to the hospital and take some tests for my comp. He has amoebas I am pretty sure. Sounds fun right? Its not that bad though, it just means that he gets explosive boo, the only bad thing is like I said, we live in a one room house, and the bathroom is just kind of in the corner. Provides some comedy actually.

I left my camera charger in my old area, but my old comp said he was going to leave it in the mission office. So when my camera is charged again I will send some videos and stuff of the guitar. 8 months of playing everyday, I have learned quite a bit actually. Anyways, nothing super cool happened this week that I can think of. Love you moms, have a good week.

Adam